When I said the other day (in another thread) that I was willing to give Eddie a bit of time (which is unlike me), it's because of Gleeson's ideas and strategy.
I was mentioning that they have new ideas in the way of attacking, different to Ireland, France and what other sides have done before.
This could give them a very unique edge, should it work consistently.
As I said previously, it's a shame Eddie was so controlling in previous years, because this style of rugby could be very exciting and effective.
But he needed to hand over far more responsibility to the players.
I wish he had started implementing this style a year or two ago. But maybe Gleeson was the piece of the jigsaw that was missing. Only time will tell.
But I, for one, won't judge England on these 2 games. I'll judge them after the Summer Tour and the Autumn internationals.
Martin Gleeson interview: England attack coach honing 'new style of rugby' that has never been seen before
Martin Gleeson is aiming for nothing less than a revolution. The England attack coach has been tasked by Eddie Jones with creating a style of play that has never been seen in the international game’s 151-year history.
Jones, the England head coach, has long believed that shirt numbers should be irrelevant outside the set-piece. Now Gleeson, a former Great Britain and England rugby league international, is attempting to put that formation-free vision into practice, whereby any player can fill in at scrum-half or first receiver, all in the name of quick ball and heads-up rugby.
“We want to try to play a new way of rugby,” says Gleeson, 41. “We have got a vision of how we want to play where we are not copying off anyone else. We want to play a certain way, where we want to generate quick ball, and it does not really matter who is going in at nine.
“Because when you get it right it is hard to defend and you are playing what you see. You are not playing to any predetermined pattern. We can look up and play what’s in front of us at that time and judge accordingly. We want to play where the space is.
“It is harder to implement and there’s a lot of work to do, but once you get it you become more dangerous and hard to defend.”
The line between total rugby and a total rabble is mighty thin, however, and so far at least the practice has been markedly different to the principle.
Treating the Italy game as an outlier, England’s attack stuttered for large periods against Wales and Scotland, yielding just five line breaks and two tries. As Gleeson, brought in by Jones to replace Simon Amor last summer, suggests, this revolution would never entail a smooth, orderly transition.
If a foundation was laid during an unbeaten autumn, this Six Nations is being used to add “layers”. The first focus was on improving England’s kick return, and Gleeson says their numbers have “gone through the roof”.
But getting to the opposition 22 is not the problem. Instead, it is England’s red-zone efficiency which is holding them back, with a tally of 1.2 and 1.3 points per visit to the opposition 22 against Scotland and Wales. “On kick return, we made a few breaks off being direct and making short passes to get us on the front foot and playing to the edge if the space was there,” Gleeson says.
“At the moment, we are getting the ball off kick return and getting down in the 22, but that’s the area where we are not taking the next step and capitalising on the work we are doing to get there. We have got a couple of layers we want to add on. If you go too much too early you will get completely lost.”
The instinctive skills of Marcus Smith at fly-half are central to this vision. Coming from a rugby league background, Gleeson loves Smith’s willingness to attack the line, but at the same time his unpredictability poses a challenge for team-mates and opponents alike. “He has his goose step and if someone is not used to that, who is playing outside, then he may overrun him,” Gleeson says. “He has got to get used to the players around him and the players have to get used to him and the way he plays when he gets the ball.”
As much technical work as there is to do, the greatest change may be the philosophical shift in giving players the licence to thrill. “You want it to look good, you do,” Gleeson says. “You want to entertain and we encourage that. We speak about that to the lads. We want them to go out and go for it.”
Gleeson would seem an unlikely implement of attacking change. Nearly all coaches who come from league arrive in a defensive capacity, such as Andy Farrell and Shaun Edwards, who coach England’s next two opponents. “I played with Faz for Great Britain and he led with his actions,” Gleeson says. “He was very mentally tough and gave really good messaging when he got the players in. He was that kind of leader, whereas I was probably thinking about things more; how do we do this? How do we do that? I always had that curiosity – thinking like a coach on the pitch.”
Coincidentally, Farrell, Edwards and Gleeson all hail from Wigan. “It’s weird, isn’t it? I don’t know. We’re all a bit mad in Wigan, I think.” For several years, Gleeson would be interrogated by Edwards during the Six Nations, asking him how he would defend these attacking moves in league. “That started me thinking what you could do in attack,” says Gleeson, who took up a role as an assistant coach with Wasps in 2019.
Despite his glittering achievements as a player, Gleeson rarely looks back and he has no shirts on his wall, nor does he dwell on his past indiscretions, which included bans for gambling and doping.
“I just focus on the now,” he says. “When it’s done it’s done. That’s a memory, it’s history. You can take lessons from everything and it has served a good purpose for me going forward.”
If there is one lesson he can take from his league career, it would centre on the two years he played for St Helens between 2002 and 2004. His best rugby coincided with his happiest period as a player. “That was a brilliant team – Paul Sculthorpe, Keiron Cunningham, Sean Long, Paul Wellens,” Gleeson says. “That was a fun team to play in and a good crew off the field. We talk about attacking rugby and you were allowed to play. We played rugby with a smile on our faces, which is what we want the lads to do. We want Marcus to do that. He plays best when he has got a smile on his face.
“It’s about giving the lads confidence and the tools to go after it, no matter what part of the pitch they’re on. We are not quite there yet, but we are confident we will get there pretty soon. There will be nothing better than if we nail it this weekend.”
Topic: England's new style - Gleeson (Telegraph article) (Read 2410 times)
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